FILTHY LUCREA Case Study Involving the Chemical Detection of Cocaine-Contaminated Currency

This lab was derived from a lab written by Ed Acheson
Department of Chemistry,Millikin University, Decatur, IL and adapted for use for Chemistry 190 by Jeanne Franz

Part I - "Busted"

Tom Brown raced through the airport to catch his plane. A Communications major at Winona State, Tom was returning to school after Christmas break. He was in a particularly good mood because Grandma Brown had given him $200 in cash as a Christmas present to spend "on something fun" at school. Tom had tucked the cash into his carry-on, which he held tightly in his hand. "I don't want to leave this bag out of my sight," he thought as he pondered ways he could spend the money.

He was suddenly jolted back to reality by a loud voice.

"Sir?"

"Yes," replied Tom.

"Officer Adams, Drug Enforcement Agency. You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent...."

Tom didn't hear the rest of the words. His mind was racing. "What's going on here? What had he done?"

The voice of Officer Adams registered again. "Our drug sniffing dogs detected cocaine in your carry-on. You're under arrest on suspicion of drug trafficking."

"How could this be," Tom thought, as Officer Adams led him into a nearby interrogation room. "I've never had anything to do with drugs."

Background

This case study is based on an incident that happened in 1991. Willie Jones, a Nashville, Tennessee, landscaper, was arrested in an airport after dogs detected cocaine in his suitcase. Agents seized the suitcase, which contained $9000 in cash. Under the provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act, the government kept the money. The government argued that since the money was contaminated with cocaine, it must have been used in the commission of a crime, namely drug trafficking. Mr. Jones later sued the government for the return of the money. His defense: cocaine contamination of money is now so widespread that detecting traces of it does not indicate it was used in drug trafficking.

Does Mr. Jones have a case (and, by extension, our friend Tom Brown)? Should the government return his money or not?

Pre-lab: Prior to Lab do the normal pre-lab activities, i.e. title, purpose, major steps, and safety. For this lab look up the safe handling and disposal of methanol and (small) amounts of cocaine. In addition, answer the following questions:

What is cocaine? What is its chemical structure? How does cocaine affect the body?
2. What is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act?
3. Why did Congress enact RICO and what is its intent?
4. Do you think RICO was applied properly in Mr. Jones's case? Why or why not? Can you find other instances where RICO was applied in a court case? Was RICO applied correctly in these cases? Why or why not?
5. How are dogs trained and used to detect drugs? How sensitive are their noses? What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using dogs to "sniff out" drugs?

In lab/ Exploration:

1. With your partner, imagine yourself in Mr. Jones's defense attorney's place. Design an experiment to determine what percentage of paper currency is contaminated with cocaine. Consider such things as: (1) Sampling; (2) The method of analysis to use; (3) What is "contamination"; (4) What level of cocaine in money indicates criminal activity; and (5) How reliable are the results you might obtain from your experiment.

How do you think money become contaminated with cocaine in the first place?

3. If you were the judge in this case, how would you rule? Why?

Experimental methods exist to screen paper currency for the presence of cocaine (i.e., determine if cocaine is present in money or not). Before you begin any experimental work, however, compile a list of questions, or experimental variables, you should consider in order to help you decide if Mr. Jones does indeed have a case. Try to make the list as complete as possible. You do not have to know the answers to your questions, and some of your questions may not be answerable, but try to ask as many as you can. Here are three example questions to get you started in your thinking:

· How many paper bills are in circulation?

· How many do we need to test?

· How do we know we are measuring cocaine in our tests?

There are many more questions that we could ask about this problem. Try to generate as long a list as you can to add to these three. Before you proceed with the Experimental Work, check your list of questions with the instructor or T.A. and have them sign your notebook where you have written your list of questions.

Experimental Work

An instrument called a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS, for short) can be used to detect cocaine. You may not know what a GC/MS is, but you have probably heard of what they do. When athletes are tested for the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs, a GC/MS is the instrument used to do the tests.

Here is a brief "big picture" overview of GC/MS. Gas chromatography (the "GC" part) is a powerful technique used to separate the components of a mixture. Mass spectrometry (the "MS" part) is then used to identify the components of the mixture. A urine sample from an athlete, for example, is injected into a GC. The GC then separates all the proteins, metabolites, drugs, etc., present in the urine into individual components. A GC is able to separate things based on how volatile each component of the mixture is. The individual components are then passed into the MS, which identifies what each component is. Mass spectrometers identify components based upon the molecular weight of the compound or fractions of the compound.

In this project, paper currency will be treated with methanol to extract any cocaine present in the money. The extract will then be injected into the GC/MS, which will determine if any cocaine is present in the extract. Each group may extract up to four bills. If the denomination, location the bill came from, or age of the bill is something you would like to consider, coordinate with other groups to get a good representation of the variables of interest.

Before extracting the bills, examine them for dirtiness, year and place of issue, etc. There is a microscope available for your use.

The procedure for extracting a bill is given below:

Roll the bill and place it into a clean vial.
Add 2 mL of methanol to the vial.
Cap the vial and shake for 5 minute.
Using a glass Pasteur pipette, transfer enough methanol to an autosampler vial to fill the vial about three-quarters full.
Remove the bill from the vial when you are finished using a forceps.
After all of your bills have been extracted, wash them off with water and flatten them out while they dry.
Bring your autosampler vials to the instructor when you are finished and log the sample information onto the sample info page. The log in sheet requires information about where the money was obtained from (i.e. Sally’s purse), the dirtiness of the bill (from 1-5), the year and place of issue, and denomination.

Class Period 2

After all the bills have been extracted, your instructor will run them on the GC/MS. Your instructor will explain how and where you can get the printout of the analysis of your bill. Be sure your class compiles a table of results for the entire class.

Answer the following questions in your lab report

Based on the whole class results, what percentage of paper currency is contaminated with cocaine?
Calculate the confidence level for cocaine contamination you’re your group’s data alone, your lab section’s data alone, and previous year’s classes. Why is there a difference? What does this say about ways you can increase your confidence in any result?
Based on your answer to number two, think of an application in “real life” where results reliability may be questionable because of the number of replicates.
Did you observe any patterns to the contamination (for example, based on denomination or geography)?
The presence of cocaine may be confirmed on the mass spectra by the presence of a peak corresponding to a mass of 303. Explain why a peak at a mass of 303 may indicate the presence of cocaine.
Based on the results of your experiments, if you were the judge in the Jones case, how would you rule? Why? Has you opinion of the case changed now that you have completed your experimental work?
Why is GC/MS the preferred method of choice for determining cocaine?
GC/MS is used for testing athletes for banned performance-enhancing drugs. What are some of the advantages, disadvantages, and limitations to GC/MS for this purpose?
What is "sampling"? How do scientists obtain a representative sample from a group?
Another group hypothesized that world currencies will be higher if the country produces or traffics in cocaine (see the CIA World Factbook web site at http://www.cia.gov for relevant information on the international drug traffic.) The data is shown below. Is the hypothesis supported, or is there more of a relationship to some other variable, such as gross domestic product? Can you think of other confounding variables in the design? How might you control for them? Are there any “outliers?”
Background: For this lab, research the chemical methods commonly used to detect the presence of banned substances in athletes, pick one particular banned substance and talk about how it is analyzed. Be sure to use references to answer this question and cite your references at the end of your answer.

Results of A Group Projects: Cocaine Levels in mg/ Bill in Various Countries

Variation by Country of Origin (Average n = 2):

Country (Range of grades) μg/bill Per Capita GDP (’00)

Australia (XF) 0.03 $21,200

Brazil (F-XF) 1.17 $ 6,100

Cambodia (VG) 0.00 $ 700

Canada, (VF) 3.32 $22,400

Chile (F/VF) 0.00 $12,500

Colombia (G) 0.60 $ 6,600

Cuba (VG) 0.16 $ 1,560

France (XF/AU) 0.03 $23,300

Germany (VF-AU) 0.08 $22,100

Hong Kong (AU) 0.00 $25,100

India (G/VG) 0.00 $ 1,720

Indonesia (G/VG) 0.00 $ 2,830

Italy (XF) 0.15 $20,800

Korea (AU) 0.00 $12,600

Mexico (G/VG) 0.00 $ 8,300

Netherlands (VF-XF) 2.61 $22,200

Netherlands Antilles (VG/F) 9.09 $11,500

Switzerland (XF-AU) 0.27 $26,400

United Kingdom (XF/AU) 0.16 $21,200

United States (VF-AU) 6.28 $31,500

Here’s a web site you might find amusing (Accessed April 7, 2009):

"Where Has That Dollar Been?" -- Want to know where that dollar in your pocket has been? At Wheresgeorge.com, you can type in the serial number on any bill and track where it’s been. It’s sort of a hit-or-miss proposition, in the sense that the site relies on a lot of people other than you plugging in the serial numbers of individual bills, but then again a lot of folks seem more than happy to do so. Every couple of tries, you’ll get a doozy of a circulation history, which makes Wheresgeorge.com a fairly addictive site. http://www.wheresgeorge.com/